Method of roaming in broadcast service and system and terminal thereof

ABSTRACT

A method, system, and terminal for handling or processing roaming errors between networks that can support broadcast services. When a roaming service between networks is requested, if a user authentication request is unsuccessful due to non-matching identification information between the networks, a corresponding error message is delivered to the subscriber terminal and network information that has been recently updated using various methods is provided such that repetitive requests and responses for authentication can be avoided when the subscriber requests a roaming service, and thus a roaming service between networks can be quickly provided without delays.

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/710,948 filed on Feb. 27, 2007, which claims the priority benefit ofU.S. Provisional Application No. 60/776,941 filed on Feb. 28, 2006 andKorean Patent Application No. 10-2007-0019488 filed on Feb. 27, 2007 inRepublic of Korea. The entire contents of these applications are hereinfully incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This disclosure relates to broadcast services for wireless (mobile)communications.

2. Discussion of the Background Art

This disclosure provides a method for processing errors related toroaming between networks that support broadcast services, and a systemand terminal thereof.

In general, a broadcast service (i.e., a BCAST service) refers to aservice for providing over-the-air (OTA) broadcasting or variousadditional information via mobile terminals. The broadcast servicedenotes a new type of service for a mobile terminal which includes botha broadcast service by which a service provider provides all subscribersthat subscribed to its services with useful information, and a multicastservice which provides various information only to a certain group ofsubscribers having subscribed to a particular subject or content.

Current mobile communication networks provide simple services which givesome limited information to subscribers. However, a BCAST service forproviding a multimedia broadcast or providing various contents has yetto be fully implemented in a desirable manner.

Even if BCAST service is to be more properly implemented and provided inthe near future, such service may be independently operated in eachnetwork. Accordingly, if a user has moved into an area managed byanother network, a roaming service is required.

In addition, the BCAST service is intended to provide a plurality ofsubscribers with the same service at the same time. Also, since onlyusers who have subscribed to a particular service provided by a serviceprovider are able to receive that particular service, the users shouldhave previously completed a procedure of subscribing to the particularservice provided by the service provider, upon providing userinformation and buying their desired service.

User information is typically managed by a particular service provider,namely, a home service provider, and the corresponding service may bereceived only within a home network area managed by the home serviceprovider.

Therefore, in order for the user to continuously receive a broadcastservice even after moving into a visited (or visiting) network whichbelongs to another service area, a roaming procedure for the broadcastservice should first be defined.

The related art broadcast service has been defined based on an area(s)managed by (or belonging to) a home service provider. Also, roamingtechniques for broadcast services is gaining more attention in recenttimes. Because a broadcast service aims to provide the same content to aplurality of users, if subscriber information is checked and particularcontent desired to be purchased is selected at the beginning of theservice subscription, then the service may be freely received.

In order for the user to receive a roaming service for which the usermoves from a home network (i.e., the home service provider) into avisited network (i.e., a visited service provider), a BCAST SubscriptionManagement (BSM) server of the home network and the BSM server of thevisited network should exchange subscriber information and areainformation related to a service(s) which the user has bought or canbuy. Also, problems which may have occurred during the above-describedprocess should be informed precisely to the subscribers.

It is assumed that the subscriber terminal has already subscribed to aroaming service from the home network. Also, it is assumed that thesubscriber terminal has identification information of the visitingnetwork to which it will move to from the home network, whereby suchidentification information may include ‘visited service provider ID andaddress’ and ‘visited service provider BSM server ID and address’.

In the related art, even though the ‘visited service provider ID andaddress’ or the ‘visited service provider BSM server ID and address’have changed, when there is a failure in roaming service authorization(or authentication) due to improper updating or improper designation,the subscriber should undesirably repeat the request for a roamingservice via his terminal, which causes delays and problems in proceedingwith the roaming service.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present inventors recognized at least the above-describedshortcomings and drawbacks of the related art. Based upon suchrecognition, various features described hereafter have been conceived.

Accordingly, an aspect of this disclosure is to deliver a correspondingerror message to the subscriber terminal if a user authorization (orauthentication) request has failed due to inconsistencies in (ornon-matching of) identification information between networks wheninter-network roaming service is requested.

Another aspect of the disclosure is to avoid repetitive roaming servicerequest/response procedures when the subscriber submits a roamingservice request by delivering a corresponding error message to thesubscriber terminal and by providing network identification information(that has been recently updated by various procedures) to the subscriberterminal, which thus allows inter-network roaming service to be promptlyprovided without much delays.

To achieve these aspects, this disclosure provides a broadcast roamingmethod comprising: receiving, by a first server from a terminal, a firstmessage that requests a roaming service; sending, by the first server toa second server, a second message that requests authorization withrespect to the roaming service; and receiving, by the first server fromthe second server, a third message in response to the requestedauthorization with respect to the roaming service.

The method may further comprise: sending, by the first server to theterminal, an authorization failure message based upon the third message.

The method may further comprise: receiving, by the first server from thesecond server, unique information with respect to the second server(i.e., information that is characteristic, peculiar, inherent, inborn,innate, etc. with respect to the second server); sending, from the firstserver to the terminal, the received unique information with respect tothe second server; and updating, performed by the terminal, by using thereceived unique information.

The method wherein the step of receiving a third message may comprise:extracting, by the second server, first information from the secondmessage; comparing, by the second server, the first information withsecond information that it already has; and if the first information andthe second information do not match, sending, by the second server tothe first server, the third message upon including a signal indicating afailure of the roaming service authorization.

Also, this disclosure provides a broadcast roaming error processingmethod performed by a source entity, the method comprising: a first stepof requesting, to a target entity, a roaming service authorization withrespect to a roaming service if the roaming service is requested by aterminal; and a second step of sending, to the terminal, an errormessage that indicates authorization failure, after receiving a responsewith respect to the roaming service authorization from the targetentity.

The method wherein the second step may comprise: determining, by thetarget entity, whether first information sent by the source entitymatches second information that it has; receiving, from the targetentity, the error message that indicates authorization failure, if thefirst information and the second information do not match; anddelivering the received error message to the terminal.

Additionally, this disclosure provides a broadcast roaming methodcomprising: requesting, by a first server to a second server, secondinformation upon receiving, from a terminal, a roaming service requestmessage that comprises first information; receiving, by the first serverfrom the second server, the requested second information; determining,by the first server based on the first information and the secondinformation, whether to authorize the service roaming request of theterminal; and sending, from the first server to the terminal, a messagethat indicates authorization failure, if the first server determinedthat the service roaming request should not be authorized.

Furthermore, this disclosure provides a terminal comprising: atransceiver that requests a roaming service to a particular entity uponincluding first information into a roaming service request message; areceiver that receives, from the particular entity, an error messageindicating roaming service authorization failure with respect to theroaming service request, and receives second information delivered fromthe particular entity; a processor that updates the first informationusing the second information received by the receiver; and a memory thatstores the updates second information.

The terminal may further comprise: a display that displays an errormessage corresponding to roaming service authorization failure.

Also, this disclosure provides a broadcast system comprising: a firstserver that sends a user authorization request with respect to a roamingservice request, upon receiving the roaming service request from aterminal; and a second server that receives the roaming serviceauthorization request of the first server, and sends, to the firstserver, a response message with respect to the roaming serviceauthorization request.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a conceptual signal diagram schematically illustrating aroaming error processing method in accordance with a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a detailed signal diagram illustrating a roaming errorprocessing method in accordance with the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a roaming error processing method inaccordance with the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a reference diagram of an exemplary error message.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual signal diagram schematically illustrating aroaming error processing method in accordance with a second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a detailed signal diagram illustrating the roaming errorprocessing method in accordance with the second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a roaming error processing method inaccordance with the second embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a conceptual signal diagram schematically illustrating aroaming error processing method in accordance with a third embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a detailed signal diagram illustrating a roaming errorprocessing method in accordance with the third embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a conceptual signal diagram schematically illustrating aroaming error processing method in accordance with a fourth embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a detailed signal diagram illustrating a roaming errorprocessing method in accordance with the fourth embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The features of the present disclosure may be implemented in order topromptly receive an inter-network roaming service to thus avoid the needto repeatedly perform a request/response for authorization when asubscriber requests the roaming service, by transferring an errormessage to a subscriber terminal and providing recently updated networkidentification information (performed in various ways) in case the userauthorization (or authentication) request has failed due to aninconsistency (or non-matching) of identification information betweenthe networks when requesting the inter-network roaming service.

It is assumed that a broadcast roaming service is based on a state thata contract (or agreement) with respect to the roaming service has beenmade between a home network and a visited network, which will bedescribed with reference to two examples.

The exemplary embodiments may be broadly characterized and explained intwo ways. FIGS. 1 through 3 are related to a first embodiment, whileFIGS. 5 through 7 are related to a second embodiment.

FIGS. 1 through 3 show signal flow diagrams related to the firstembodiment, whereby if the terminal is located in a home network areaand performs roaming to move into a visiting network area.

Referring to FIGS. 1 through 3, the first embodiment shows a case wherea subscriber's roaming service request is generated within a homenetwork area. Here, a subscriber terminal first acquires a service guidefrom a BCAST Service Distribution/Adaptation (BSDA) server of the homenetwork (i.e., a home service provider).

The service guide may be provided upon the subscriber's request orautomatically provided if the subscriber terminal is located within anautomatic reception area of the home network. It should be noted thatthe subscriber terminal may also be referred to as a User Equipment(UE), a terminal or a device.

In this state, the subscriber may request a roaming service for thevisited network to which the subscriber wants to move into, from a BCASTSubscription Management (BSM) server of the home network via histerminal (S400). Here, the terminal may request the roaming serviceusing a particular message, such as a so-called roaming service requestmessage. Also, the roaming service request message may be comprised ofidentification information of the home network BSM server,identification information of the visited network BSM server, and thelike. Here, the identification information may also be referred to as‘unique information’ hereafter. Also, the identification information mayinclude, for example, a home network BSM server ID and address or avisited network BSM server ID and address, or a terminal or user ID andservice guide related information may also be additionally includedtherein.

Accordingly, the BSM server of the home network accesses the BSM serverof the visited network to request a user authorization for the roamingservice (S401). Here, the message corresponding to the userauthorization request for the roaming service may be comprised ofidentification information of the home network BSM server andidentification information of the visited network BSM server.

After receiving the user authorization request, the BSM server of thevisited network receives, from the BSM server of the home network,visited network identification information related to the userauthorization for the roaming service, namely, existing information(i.e., ID and address of a visited service provider and ID and addressof a visited service provider BSM), thus to determine whether theroaming service is successfully authorized (or authenticated) (S402).

Here, the BSM server of the visited network compares the visited networkidentification information (or unique information) received from the BSMserver of the home network with its visited network identificationinformation. If the information does not match with each other, the BSMserver of the visited network sends a signal indicating a userauthorization failure to the BSM server of the home network. Here, thesignal indicating user authorization failure may be expressed by using aparticular code (e.g., a so-called global status code). Also, suchparticular code may comprise a particular element that indicates aroaming authorization status, and such particular element may beincluded into a response message with respect to the roaming serviceauthorization request that the visited network BSM server sends to thehome network BSM server. If in step S402 it is determined that userauthorization for the roaming service has not been performed by thevisited network BSM server (i.e., if a roaming service authorizationfailure occurs), an error message (or signal, code, etc.) indicating theroaming service authorization failure may be included in the responsemessage. Here, the error message of FIG. 4 may refer to a value amongthe global status codes (e.g., global status code 025 or global statuscode 026), and such error message may be included in a particularelement (e.g., a so-called roaming authorization status element) withinthe response message.

When receiving the signal indicating the user authorization failure fromthe BSM server of the visited network, the BSM server of the homenetwork sends a message indicating the user authorization failure to theterminal (S403).

Afterwards, as a result of performing steps S400 through S403, ifauthorization with respect to the roaming service for the terminal isnot allowed and thus fails, the BSM server of the visited network sendsrecent-updated visited network identification information it has to theBSM server of the home network (S404).

Accordingly, the BSM server of the home network then sends the receivedrecent-updated visited network identification information to theterminal (S405). Also, the terminal may use the recently updated visitednetwork identification information (that was delivered to the terminal)in order to update its previous corresponding identificationinformation.

As described above, when the user checks the error message indicating afailure of the roaming service authorization via his terminal, theauthorization failure with respect to the roaming service can beverified. Also, the subscriber terminal need not repeatedly performroaming service request procedures, and need not wait for a responsewith respect to such request. Also, the subscriber can rapidly acquirethe recently updated visited network identification information (uniqueinformation).

Meanwhile, the visited network identification information may beacquired by the following method or by using other available methods.

In order to solve the user authorization failure of the roaming service,at least two types of methods may be provided; namely, a method forupdating an existing service guide including the visited networkidentification information and a method of terminal provisioning using aDevice Management (DM) enabler (or a similar entity).

First, some exemplary methods for updating the existing service guideare as follows.

In a first method, a BSDA server of the home network sends a messageindicating the user authorization failure to the terminal and providesthe terminal with a service guide, which includes recently updatedvisited network identification information, namely, updated information(i.e., the ID and address of the visited service provider and ID andaddress of the visited service provider BSM).

In a second method, the BSDA server of the home network periodicallyprovides the terminal with a service guide including the recentlyupdated visited network identification information. Here, the BSDAserver of the home network simultaneously provides the recently updatedvisited network identification information to all subscriber terminalsin a broadcast manner.

In a third method, the BSDA server of the home network maybi-directionally provide the recently updated visited networkidentification information according to a one-to-one request of eachterminal. Here, a method of updating each fragment of the service guiderelated to a roaming part may be the most efficient and effective, bywhich a network load can be prevented (or at least minimized).

Next, the terminal provisioning method using Device Management (DM)enabler (or similar entity) will be described hereafter.

The home network may further have a DM server (or some other appropriatenetwork entity) so as to solve the problems of user authorizationfailure for the roaming service of the terminal according to theterminal provisioning method described previously.

That is, the terminal provisioning method can be considered as aone-to-one management method, which aims to perform troubleshooting.When a particular element has a problem, the problem of thecorresponding element is solved by an OTA (over-the-air) scheme. Here,each subscriber can be individually managed, and thus overall managementcan be performed more efficiently.

FIGS. 5 through 7 refer to a second exemplary embodiment, showing aschematic signal flow diagram that illustrates the generation of anerror message when a terminal located in a visited network area isroaming to move into a home network area.

Referring to FIGS. 5 through 7, the second embodiment relates to asubscriber's roaming service request being generated within a visitednetwork area. First, the subscriber terminal acquires a service guide(or some other appropriated listing of services) from a BSDA server ofthe visited network (i.e., a visited service provider).

Here, the service guide may be provided by the subscriber's request orautomatically provided if the subscriber terminal is located within anautomatic reception area of the visited network.

In order to continuously receive a service that was being received inthe (previous) home network, the subscriber terminal requests a roamingservice to the visited network (S500). Here, in order for the terminalto request a roaming service to the visited network, a so-called roamingservice request message may be sent. Such roaming service requestmessage may indicate a message to request data including someconstraints among pre-described constraints (or policy) between homenetwork and visited network, especially the some constraints necessaryfor a roaming service to the visited network and such roaming servicerequest message may be comprised of identification information of thehome network (such as, a home network BSM server ID, a unique ID of theterminal or user, etc.), which the terminal has had and delivered to thevisited network. Such identification information may also be referred toas ‘unique (i.e., characteristic, peculiar, inherent, etc.) information’hereafter. Such identification information may also comprise a homenetwork BSM server ID and address, a visited network BSM server ID andaddress, etc. Also, a terminal or user ID and service guide relatedinformation may be included together therein.

Accordingly, the BSM server of the visited network accesses the BSMserver of the home network to request a user authorization for theroaming service (S501). Here, the roaming service authorization messagemay include home network BSM server identification information, visitednetwork BSM server identification information, etc. In other words, theroaming service authorization message may include a home network BSMserver ID and a visited network BSM server ID, which it currently has,received from the terminal, and if necessary, the ID of the terminal orterminal user, as well as information related to the service guide mayalso be included.

After receiving the user authorization request, the home network BSMserver uses the information delivered from the visited network BSMserver to thus determine whether the roaming service would be possibleand should be authorized (or authenticated) (S502).

Here, the BSM server of the home network compares the home networkidentification information (e.g., home network BSM server ID) receivedfrom the visited network BSM server with the home network identificationinformation that it already has. If the information match each other, aroaming service will be processed. On the contrary, if the informationdo not match each other, a signal (or some other type of messaging)indicating a user authorization failure is delivered to the visitednetwork BSM server (S503). Here, the signal (or other types ofinformation or message) indicating user authorization failure may beexpressed by using a particular code (e.g., a so-called global statuscode), as shown in FIG. 4. Also, as shown in FIG. 4, the signalindicating roaming service authorization failure may be a codeindicating that the service provider ID cannot be known (i.e., ServiceProvider ID Unknown in FIG. 4). Another example may be a code indicatingthat the service provider BSM server ID cannot be known (i.e., ServiceProvider BSM ID Unknown).

Such particular code may be included in a particular element thatindicates a roaming authorization status, and such particular elementmay be included in a response message with respect to a roaming serviceauthorization request that the visited network BSM server sends to thehome network BSM server. In step (S502), if the visited network BSMserver determines that user authorization for the roaming service is notpossible (i.e., if subscriber authorization with respect to the roamingservice has failed), the response message may include an error message(or error signal, error code, etc.) indicating roaming serviceauthorization failure, as shown in FIG. 4. Here, the error message (asin FIG. 4) may correspond to one value among the global authorizationcodes (e.g., global status code 025 or 026), and such error message maybe included within a particular element. (e.g., a so-called roamingauthorization status element) in the response message. As an example,the particular element (i.e., the so-called roaming authorization statuselement) may be comprised of a total of 27 status codes (e.g., 000through 026), namely, global status codes.

Upon receiving a signal (or messaging) indicating user authorizationfailure from the home network BSM server, the visited network BSM serversends a message (or signaling) indicating the user authorization failureto the terminal (S503). Here, the error message of step S503 may be likethat as shown in FIG. 4, or may be a message indicating authorizationfailure that corresponds to the error message of FIG. 4.

Thus, when the user checks the error message indicating a failure of theroaming service authorization via his terminal, the authorizationfailure with respect to the roaming service can be verified. Also, thesubscriber terminal need not repeatedly perform roaming service requestprocedures, and need not wait for a response with respect to suchrequest.

Therefore, because the subscriber can check the error message via histerminal and can avoid performing any repeated roaming service requestand/or response procedures, the updated home network identificationinformation is received or another updating method is considered.

Afterwards, upon performing steps S500 through 5503, if theauthorization with respect to the roaming service of the terminal is notallowed and fails, the BSM server of the home network sends recentlyupdated home network identification information that it has to thevisited network BSM server and the terminal receives the updated homenetwork identification information to thusly success a roaming serviceby using it when the terminal will request a roaming service to avisited network (S504).

Accordingly, the BSM server of the visited network then sends (delivers)the received recently updated home network identification information tothe terminal (S505). Also, the terminal may use the recently updatedvisited network identification information (that was delivered to theterminal) in order to update its previous corresponding identificationinformation.

In order to solve the user authorization failures of the roamingservice, a method for updating an existing service guide including thehome network identification information and a terminal provisioningmethod using a Device Management (DM) Enabler (or some other appropriateDevice Management (DM) entity) may be used.

First, some exemplary methods for updating the existing service guidewill now be described.

In a first exemplary method, a BSDA server (or some other appropriatenetwork entity) of the visited network sends a message (or othersignaling) indicating the user authorization failure to the terminal andprovides the terminal with a service guide (or some other listing ofservices) which includes recently updated home network identificationinformation, namely, updated information (i.e., ID and the address ofthe home service provider and ID and the address of the home networkprovider BSM).

In a second exemplary method, the BSDA server (or some other appropriatenetwork entity) of the visited network periodically provides theterminal with the service guide (or some other listing of services)including the recent-updated visited network identification information.Here, the BSDA server of the visited network simultaneously provides therecently updated home network identification information to allsubscribed terminals in a broadcast manner.

In a third exemplary method, the BSDA server (or some other appropriatenetwork entity) of the visited network may bi-directionally provide therecently updated home network identification information according to aone-to-one request of each terminal. Here, a method in which a roamingportion is updated by each fragment of the service guide results inimproved efficiency and a network load can be minimized.

Next, the terminal provisioning method using a Device Management (DM)Enabler (or some similar entity) will be described.

The visited network may further have a DM server (or some otherappropriate network entity) so as to address (and solve) theaforementioned issue of possible user authorization failure of theroaming service of the terminal by using the terminal provisioningmethod.

The terminal provisioning method may be the same as that shown in thefirst exemplary embodiment, and thus a detailed explanation thereof willnot be repeated for the sake of brevity.

Hereafter, the third and fourth exemplary embodiments will be explainedwith reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 8 and 9 relate to a third exemplary embodiment and show aschematic signal flow diagram for the generation of an error message dueto roaming service authorization failure when roaming service to a homenetwork is requested by a terminal located in a home network area is tomove into a visited network area.

During the step of comparing identification information between networksin the roaming error processing method, the BSM server (or other networkentity) of the home network may request visited network identificationinformation (e.g., visited network service provider ID and address,visited service provider BSM ID and address, etc.) from the BSM server(or other network entity) of the visited network. The BSM server of thehome network then receives recently updated visited networkidentification information from the BSM server of the visited network tocompare it with the visited network identification information that italready has, to thus determine whether or not the compared informationmatch each other. The other processes may be the same as those in thefirst exemplary embodiment described previously.

FIGS. 10 and 11 relate to a fourth exemplary embodiment and show aschematic signal flow diagram for the generation of an error message dueto roaming service authorization failure when roaming service isrequested for a terminal located in a home network area is to move intoa visited network area.

During the step of comparing identification information between networksin the roaming error processing method, the BSM server (or some othernetwork entity) of the visited network requests home networkidentification information (e.g., visited network service provider IDand address, visited service provider BSM ID and address, etc.) from theBSM server (or some other network entity) of the home network. The BSMserver of the visited network then receives recently-updated homenetwork identification information from the BSM server of the homenetwork to compare it with the home network identification informationit has, to thus determine whether or not both types of information matchwith each other. The other processes may be the same as those in thesecond exemplary embodiment described previously.

Hereafter, a terminal and broadcast system for processing roaming errorswill be explained. A terminal described herein is a broad term that mayrefers to various types of wired and/or wireless terminals or devicesthat support and are applicable to broadcast services. Thus, a terminalaccording to this disclosure includes all devices that can supportbroadcast services, such as mobile communication terminals (e.g.,cellular phones, PDA phones, DMB phone, mobile handsets, etc.), PDAs,notebook computers, personal computers, household appliances, consumerelectronics, and the like.

An exemplary terminal according to this disclosure may be comprised of atransceiver that requests (or asks for) a roaming service to aparticular entity (e.g., a visited network BSM server, a home networkBSM server, etc.) upon including first information into a roamingservice request message; a receiver that receives a service guide from aBSDA of a home network or a visited network, and a message (e.g., anerror message) indicating roaming service authorization failure withrespect to the roaming service request in accordance with a responsemessage for user authorization for the roaming service; a processor thatupdates the recently updated visited network BSM server identificationinformation (e.g., visited network BSM server ID, etc.) received by thereceiver or updates the recently updated home network BSM serveridentification information (e.g., home network BSM server ID, etc.)received by the receiver; and a memory that stores the updated visitednetwork BSM server identification information or the recently updatedhome network BSM server identification information.

Also, the receiver of the terminal may receive the visited network BSMserver identification information (e.g., visited network BSM server ID,etc.) or the home network BSM server identification information (e.g.,home network BSM server ID, etc.).

Also, the terminal may further comprise an output unit that provides anerror message corresponding to roaming service authorization failure.Such output unit may be a display (screen) that shows the error messageas text (or graphics, images, etc.), or a sound output device (e.g., aspeaker unit) that outputs the error message as sounds, or a mechanicaloutput device (e.g., a vibrating unit) that outputs the error message asvibrations, or any combination of the above. In other words, the outputunit according to the features of this disclosure may provide visual,audible, and/or tactile feedback to the user.

Also, regarding the specific operations of the terminal, the mattersexplained with respect to the first through fourth embodiments areapplicable.

Meanwhile, in addition to the elements and features explained thus far,the terminal according to the present disclosure also includes hardwareand/or software needed for properly supporting and handling broadcastservices. Although a detailed description about some of these basicfeatures have not been explained, those skilled in the art can clearlyunderstand that such features are also implemented in the terminalaccording to the present disclosure, and their explanation has beenomitted herewith merely for the sake of brevity and to prevent theinventive features herein from being obscured.

Hereafter, regarding an exemplary broadcast system for processingroaming errors according to this disclosure will be described. Suchbroadcast system may be comprised of a first server that receives aroaming service request from the terminal and sends a user authorizationrequest with respect to the roaming service request, and a second serverthat receives the roaming service authorization request of the firstserver and sends to the first server a response message with respect tothe roaming service authorization request.

Here, the first server may be a visited network BSM server and thesecond server may be a home network BSM server. In contrast, the firstserver may be a home network BSM server and the second server may be avisited network BSM server.

Also, when the terminal requests a roaming service, the first serverreceives, from the terminal, identification information of the secondserver (e.g., a BSM Filter Code, etc.). Additionally, the first serversends its identification information to the second server together withthe identification information of the second server received from theterminal. Here, such identification information may be the same as thatof the first through fourth exemplary embodiments.

The second server compares its own identification information with thesecond server identification information that was sent by the firstserver to see if they are the same. Thereafter, if the identificationinformation does not match, the second server determined that theauthorization for the roaming service request from the terminal is notpossible. Namely, this is a case of a failure in the roaming servicerequest authorization. Thus, the second server sends to the firstserver, an error message indicating the user authorization failure forthe roaming service. Here, the error message may be that which wasalready explained with reference to FIG. 4. Also, such error message maybe included in the response message, sent by the second server to thefirst server, with respect to the roaming service authorization request.

Additionally, the second server may deliver the error message to theterminal.

Meanwhile, upon receiving a roaming service request from the terminal,the first server requests the second server to deliver theidentification information that the second server has. After receivingthe identification information that the second server has (i.e., thesecond server identification information), the first server compares tosee if such is the same as the second server identification informationsent by the terminal. If such information (i.e., the second serveridentification information that the terminal and second serverrespectively have) do not match, the first server determines that theroaming service request from the terminal cannot be authorized and sendsan error message to the terminal.

Also, regarding the operation of the first and second servers of thebroadcast system, the previous explanations corresponding to the firstthrough fourth exemplary embodiments may be all applicable.

As aforementioned, the present features have been explained withreference to some exemplary embodiments shown in the accompanyingdrawings. However, these embodiments are merely exemplary. It will alsobe apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications andvariations can be made without departing from the scope thereof.

As described above, features of the present disclosure can beimplemented such that a roaming service between networks can be rapidlyreceived to thus enable avoidance of repeated request and/or responseprocedures when a subscriber requests the roaming service. This may beachieved by transferring an error message to a subscriber terminal andproviding recent-updated network identification information in variousmanners in case where a user authorization request has been failed dueto inconsistency in identification information between the networks whenrequesting the roaming service therebetween.

1. A first broadcast subscription management (BSM) entity configured tocommunicate with a terminal via a network, comprising: a receiver; atransmitter; and a processor operatively connected to the receiver andtransmitter, the processor configured to receive, from the terminal, aservice request message, wherein the service request message comprisesfirst information related to a second BSM entity, and wherein theservice request message further comprises at least one of a useridentification and a device identification, send, to the second BSMentity based on the first information related to the second BSM entityincluded in the service request message, a roaming service requestmessage including second information about the second BSM entity, andthe user identification, the second information including serviceprovider information, receive, from the second BSM entity, a roamingservice response message including a global status code in response tothe roaming service request message, wherein if the roaming servicefails, the global status code indicates that a service provideridentification having been provided to the second BSM entity is unknown,that a BSM identification having been provided to the second BSM entityis unknown, or that an authorization of the device or the user failed,and send, to the terminal, a response message in response to the servicerequest message, the response message including the global status code.2. The first BSM entity of claim 1, wherein the first BSM entity is ahome BSM entity and the second BSM entity is a visited BSM entity. 3.The first BSM entity of claim 1, wherein the first BSM entity is avisited BSM entity and the second BSM entity is a home BSM entity. 4.The first BSM entity of claim 1, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to update the service provider identification if the globalstatus code of the roaming service response message indicates that theservice provider identification is unknown, or update the BSMidentification if the global status code of the roaming service responsemessage indicates that the BSM identification is unknown.
 5. The firstBSM entity of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured toreceive, from the second BSM entity, updated information about thesecond BSM entity, and send, to the terminal, the updated informationabout the second BSM entity.
 6. The first BSM entity of claim 3, whereinthe processor is further configured to provide service guide informationto the terminal.
 7. The first BSM entity of claim 1, wherein the firstor second information about the second BSM includes at least one of theservice provider identification, the BSM identification, an address of aservice provider and an address of the second BSM entity.
 8. The firstBSM entity of claim 1, wherein the service request message furthercomprises information about the first BSM entity.
 9. The first BSMentity of claim 8, wherein the information about the first BSMcomprises: a service provider identification, a BSM identification, anaddress of a service provider and an address of the first BSM entity.10. A second broadcast subscription management (BSM) entity configuredto communicate with a terminal via a first BSM entity, the terminalconfigured to send a service request message to the first BSM entitythat includes first information related to the second BSM entity, and atleast one of an user identification and a device identification, thesecond BSM entity comprising: a receiver; a transmitter; and a processoroperatively connected to the receiver and transmitter, the processorconfigured to receive, from the first BSM entity, a roaming servicerequest message including first information about the second BSM entity,and the user identification, the first information including serviceprovider information, and send, to the first BSM entity, a roamingservice response message including a global status code in response tothe roaming service request message, wherein if the roaming servicefails, the global status code indicates that the service provideridentification having been received is unknown, that the BSMidentification having been received is unknown, or that an authorizationof the device or the user failed.
 11. The second BSM entity of claim 10,wherein the first BSM entity is a home BSM entity and the second BSMentity is a visited BSM entity.
 12. The second BSM entity of claim 10,wherein the first BSM entity is a visited BSM entity and the second BSMentity is a home BSM entity.
 13. The second BSM entity of claim 10,wherein the processor is further configured to extract the firstinformation from the roaming service request message; and compare thefirst information with second information that the processor alreadyhas, wherein if the first information and the second information do notmatch, the global status of the roaming service response messageindicates a failure of the roaming service.
 14. The second BSM entity ofclaim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to send, to thefirst BSM entity, updated information about the second BSM entity forforwarding to the terminal.
 15. The second BSM entity of claim 10,wherein the first or second information about the second BSM includes atleast one of the service provider identification, the BSMidentification, an address of a service provider and an address of thesecond BSM entity.